Lumsden Treatment Centre receives secret $800K, while failing to treat patients

Saskatchewan Party secretly funnelled an additional $800,000 into the Lumsden Treatment Centre over the summer, despite the facility’s failure to provide treatment services, newly obtained government emails reveal. 

The total cost of the project remains redacted, but taxpayers are already on the hook for at least $1.5 million in startup costs alone.

The payments, uncovered through a freedom of information request, have fueled concerns over government spending priorities as Saskatchewan grapples with an escalating addiction crisis. 

Despite repeated pledges that the Lumsden Treatment Centre would provide much-needed support, the facility remains largely non-operational.

“The Sask Party has had no problem handing this centre blank cheques while wait times grow and this addictions crisis gets worse and worse,” said Betty Nippi-Albright, the NDP’s Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Addictions. 

“Where is this money going? Saskatchewan families deserve answers.”

Adding to the controversy, Minister Lori Carr was recently caught misrepresenting the centre’s status, falsely claiming it was open and accepting inpatients. 

In reality, the facility has yet to deliver on its promise to offer addiction treatment.

Whistleblower and former admissions coordinator Mandy Challis has previously called out the government’s mismanagement of the project, noting that “this facility has had a year of money being put into staffing with no clients when there are [local] organizations begging for donations.”

Critics argue that the government’s failure to properly allocate addiction treatment funding is costing lives. 

“We have people dying every day of addiction in this province and a government wasting money that could be devoted to saving lives,” said Nippi-Albright. 

“It’s time we get serious about a plan to protect our communities from the harmful effects of drugs, now and into the future.”

The Sask NDP is now demanding full transparency from the Sask Party, calling for an immediate disclosure of the total costs associated with the Lumsden Treatment Centre, a detailed breakdown of expenses, the number of patients treated, and an account of the ongoing challenges the facility faces.

With public scrutiny mounting, the government faces increasing pressure to explain why taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for a treatment centre that has yet to serve those in need.